The unusual story that occurred at 'South Korea's Amazon' - and the board member who chose, despite everything, to put everything on the table?
South Korean company Coupang is often called 'South Korea's Amazon'.
It is the largest e-commerce company in South Korea.
It operates a vast logistics network that enables same-day deliveries; additionally, it operates food delivery, streaming, and fintech services.
On 02/20/2026, the company reported its latest earnings report summarizing 2025.
Net revenue reached $34 billion, a 14% increase compared to 2024 (and 18% excluding currency effects).
Gross profit rose by 15% to over $10 billion; gross margins grew by 19 basis points to almost 30%.
Net income grew by about 30% to $208 million.
Where do the problems begin?
When looking at the money that actually remained in the company's pocket...
Free cash flow stood at $527 million, a decrease of almost 50% compared to the previous year, and a drop of almost $500 million!
Even when looking at the last quarter of 2025 versus the last quarter of 2024, several negative points are visible.
For example, a severe drop in profit margins, which fell to just 3%, affected annual results and absorbed a significant portion of the cash flow.
The explanation for these negative figures is an unusual event of a severe data leak.
The strange incident occurred during the last quarter of 2025:
A former employee of the company illegally accessed data of over 33 million Coupang users and kept data of about 3,000 customers.
The data he accessed included phone numbers, emails, shipping addresses, order history, and even building entry codes.
Immediately upon the incident's disclosure, Coupang hired the services of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto, along with other companies, who conducted a comprehensive forensic investigation.
As of the latest report, the company claims no evidence of data misuse was found, meaning customers were not harmed.
As a result of this incident, the company experienced a sudden slowdown in activity, a decrease in sales, and a decline in customer engagement.
The number of active customers suddenly decreased, and the sudden expenses for the cyber investigation and related costs also impacted the quarterly/annual report.
This serious event negatively affected the performance of $CPNG stock, which quickly dropped by about 50% and is now trading around the price it was at in January 2022.
And this is exactly where the story starts to get interesting...?
Last weekend, Neil Mehta, who serves as a director at the company, opened his personal wallet and purchased shares.
He purchased shares for an unusual sum of $136,000,000 at the market price of $18.5 per share.
The big question is, what leads him to buy shares for such an amount precisely now?
Let's talk about the company's forward vision -
The data is quoted from the company's latest quarterly report.
The company notes that despite the total 14% revenue growth, these revenues are actually split between two segments.
And their numbers are not exactly similar.
1. Commerce segment.
2. Developing offerings segment. (Everything that is not online commerce - food delivery service, streaming, fashion brands, etc.).
The commerce segment is the company's largest and most stable segment; revenues reached $29 billion, up 11% year-over-year.
The developing offerings segment, while bringing in 'only' $5 billion, is still unprofitable (with losses growing to $995 million compared to $631 million in 2024).
But its growth rate is five times higher, about 50% compared to the previous year (in a quarterly comparison, the commerce segment grew by 8%, while the developing offerings segment grew by 32%).
The big turnaround?
One reason for the increased loss in this segment is the acquisition of the fashion brand 'Farfetch', which was acquired by the company in January 2024.
Additionally, precisely because of its growth, this segment still requires significant capital investments; the company defines this segment as its 'growth engine for the next decade'.
A significant portion of these capital expenditures is invested in the Taiwanese market, which the company claims is expected to be its next growth engine.
How much does it believe in this growth engine? - Pay attention to this:
The company did something very unusual in the stock market to strengthen investor confidence: it disclosed data on its Q1 2026 status in its Q4 2025 report.
The company reported that it sees signs of stabilization and a return to full activity.
Netflix - behind you?
Coupang has very strong bargaining chips in the form of paying subscribers:
Just last April, the company raised its streaming subscription fees by 58%, and not only did the number of customers grow, but the average customer's spending also increased (!).
Are these the sequence of events leading the board member to purchase shares from his private pocket for $136 million?
We are monitoring.